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India Post News Service
Monday, 10.08.2007, 12:32am (GMT-7)

NEW YORK: Staying true to its mission to provide a platform to showcase the best of South Asian Cinema to the US audience, the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival is screening 'Saawariya' as its opening night film and 'The Last Lear' as the closing night film for this year's festival. Aroon Shivdasani, Executive Director & Founder, Indo-American Arts Council announced these exciting movies at the kick-off festival screening for MIAAC of Rituparno Ghosh's 'Dosar' that received rave reviews at Cannes.

Gearing up for its seventh year, the Film Festival promotes, showcases, and celebrates the unique voices and talent of filmmakers' that tell compelling stories about the South Asian subcontinent. The MIAAC Film Festival promises to bring innovative experiences and programs to a broad audience and will take place in New York from November 7 - 11. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Saawariya introduces new talents Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor.

The Opening Night of the Festival will be followed by a star studded reception at Madame Tussaud's. Saawariya will be released by Sony Pictures and will thus be the first Indian movie produced by a Hollywood production house. "India has a rich and a prolific film history.

We at Sony Pictures recognize the potential and importance of the Indian market," Sony said in a news release quoting Michael Lynton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Pictures. "This historic co-production encourages the integration of two of the world's biggest and dynamic film production communities and offered an excellent opportunity for the enormous talent in India to interact with a premiere Hollywood studio."

Pooja Kohli Taneja, Festival Director of MIAAC, says " 'Saawariya' indicates Sony's recognition of the importance of the Indian market and its desire to team up with the film industry in India. This is an important milestone for the Indian film industry and it is our honor to showcase it as the opening night film for this year's film festival."

Closing Night screening of Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear will be at The Asia Society. The film's star cast includes Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal and others. The Last Lear is based on Utpal Dutt's play 'Aajker Shahjahan'.

An aging Shakespearean actor takes on one of the bard's most challenging roles. National Award-winning director, Rituparno Ghosh's films have been selected in prestigious international platforms like Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Karlovy Vary and Venice.

Fresh from the success of 'Dosar', which was recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2007, his next release is The Last Lear. Lowes is the official theatre partner for the 2007 Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival.

The opening night screening will be at the 42nd Street venue while the rest of the films will move to the 19th Street and Broadway location. The closing night film screening and the awards presentation will take place at the Asia Society. In addition several movies will also be screened at Newport Center Mall in Jersey City.

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